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John Pemberton was a colonel in the Confederate States of America, who was wounded in the American Civil War and became addicted to morphine. Pemberton's Eagle Drug and Chemical House in Columbus, Georgia, formulated French Wine Coca as a replacement drug in 1885and registered it as a nerve tonic and converted it into a nonalcoholic version the following year when prohibition was introduced locally. Sold as a patent medicine at drugstore soda fountains, the drink was advertised as a cure for morphine addiction, indigestion, nerve disorders, headaches, and impotence. The “Coca-Cola” brand name was retained by John’s son Charley, though Asa Griggs Candler bought up most of the company’s control by 1888; in 1894 Candler took complete ownership, perhaps with the use of forged documents. A group of investors bought the company in 1919 for $25 million. Many diners and soda fountains began adding cherry-flavored syrup to the Coca-Cola mix, but the firm did not start marketing Coca-Cola Cherry in 1985, the same year that the company tried to introduce “New Coke,” an unpopular new formula.The USA was the first country to exchange ambassadors with India in 1947, and the United States Library was established as a reading room in New Delhi with a collection of 3,000 books, 2,000 pamphlets, and 80 periodical subscriptions. By 1951 its holdings doubled, and a lending system was introduced. When the library was temporarily moved in 1952 it had 10,000 books and 300 periodical subscriptions; the collection continued to grow in successive years, along with new library services and facilities.

Studebaker was founded in 1852, but didn't begin producing automobiles until 1902. Autocar, founded in 1897, was the oldest motor vehicle manufacturer in the western hemisphere; originally an automobile maker, it switched exclusively to heavy trucks in 1911. Oldsmobile was also founded in 1897 but went out of existence in 2004. Henry Ford made his first car in 1896, founded the Detroit Automobile Company in 1900, and reorganized it as the Henry Ford Company the following year, abandoning the project in 1902; he did not start the Ford Motor Co. until 1903. The Buick Auto-Vim and Power Co. made its first cars in 1899 and 1900, making Buick the oldest extant American car maker; but David Buick, satisfied with stationary and marine engine production, was not eager to enter the area, and his chief engineer Walter Marr left in 1901 to found his own automobile company under his own name. His replacement was Eugene Richard, who applied for a patent in 1902 for Marr's valve-in-head engine, which he received in Buick’s name in1904; the Buick Motor Co. was formed in 1903 in Detroit, Michigan, purchased by Benjamin Briscoe, and resold to James H. Whiting, owner of Flint Wagon Works, in Flint, Michigan, with the idea of adding Buick's engines to his wagons. Buick stayed on as a manager and re-hired Marr as chief engineer. In 1904 William C. Durant, whose Durant-Dort Carriage Company, the largest carriage-making company in the US, joined the firm as controlling investor. Durant spent the next 4 years turning Buick into the biggest-selling automobile brand in the nation and bought out Buick in 1906. In 1908 he founded General Motors as a holding company and acquired Oldsmobile.

Cadillac, the country’s 2nd-oldest auto maker, was formed in 1903 when Ford’s disgruntled investors, William Murphy and Lemuel Bowen, brought in Henry M. Leland to appraise the plant and equipment prior to liquidating the Henry Ford Co., but Leland instead persuaded them to continue making automobiles using Leland's own 10 hp (7 kW) single-cylinder engine. The Cadillac Automobile Co. was thus established, named after Antoine Laumet de La Mothe, sieur de Cadillac, who had also founded Fort Pontchartrain du Détroit in 1701. Its first autos were the Runabout and Tonneau, two-seat horseless carriages that were nearly identical to the 1903 Ford Model A but were marketed on the basis of stylish luxury finishes and precision engineering; the complete interchangeability of its precision parts led to the modern mass production of automobiles. The company merged with Leland & Faulconer Manufacturing in 1905, becoming the Cadillac Motor Co., and in 1906 it became the first volume manufacturer of fully enclosed cars. In 1909 Durant brought in Cadillac, Elmore, Oakland, and several other car makers, as well as the Reliance Motor Truck Co.and Rapid Motor Vehicle Co., the predecessors of GMC Truck, and Cadillac became General Motors' prestige division, devoted to the production of large luxury vehicles. Durant lost control of General Motors in 1910 due to the large amount of debt taken on through its acquisitions, coupled with a collapse in new vehicle sales. However, in 1911Durant started the Chevrolet Motor Car Co. and soon managed to secretly purchased a controlling interest in GM, reorganizing it as General Motors Corporation in 1916. But after the new vehicle market collapsed Durant once again lost control. In 1912, Cadillac was the first automobile manufacturer to incorporate an electrical system enabling starting, ignition, and lighting. In 1915 it introduced a 90-degree flathead V8 engine with 70 horsepower (52 kW) at 2400 rpm and 180 pound force-feet (240 N·m) of torque, allowing its cars to attain 65 mph (105 km/h); it pioneered the dual-plane V8 crankshaft in 1918; shatter-resistant glass in 1926; designer-styled (as opposed to auto-engineered) bodywork in 1927; the first clashless Synchro-Mesh manual transmission, utilizing constant mesh gears, in 1928; the V-16 engine, with a 45-degree overhead valve, 452 cubic inches (7.41 litres), and 165 horsepower (123 kW), in 1930; and a new V8 engine, with overhead valves, that set the standard for the entire American automotive industry, in 1949, for which accomplishment it won the first "Motor Trend Car of the Year" award; that year it produced its one millionth car. Cadillac also introduced the "turret top," the first all-steel roof on a passenger car, replacing fabric-covered wood. The car’s Autronic Eye (1953) automatically dimmed high-beam headlights for the safety of oncoming motorists. In 1957 it featured self-levelling suspension, a "memory seat" function, and an all-transistor signal-seeking car radio. The dual-reservoir brake master cylinder, with separate front and rear hydraulic systems, was introduced in 1962; the firm also introduced the first fully-automatic heater-air conditioning system and the 3-speed Turbo-Hydramatic automatic transmission.